A Study On Coleman's Rational Choice Theory

A variety of agents and organizations appear in modern society. They deeply affect human being in the aspect of living way, acting way and thinking way. At the same time change our social foundation. Rational Choice Theory proposed by Coleman answered the question of social order.At first Coleman put forward the basic assumption and research methodology of his theory—rational man assumption and Individualism Methodology. Rational man is purposive actor, aiming at profiting. Individualism Methodology is the method of Internal Analysis of System Behavior that is macro phenomenon interpreted by sociology, but interpretation should be carried on beneath macro level. This method can eliminate long—exiting binary opposition between macro and micro level.In terms of modern society, its order exists in every kind of organization and agent. Even we can say, modern agents' activity maintain the basic social order and structure, Coleman' originally analyzing at the micro level, pointed out: "Every person in society occupy a number of resources, therefore obtain prestige of certain action. But other resources for profiting probably are controlled by other actors, so actors must exchange mutually for profiting." At the medium level, Coleman think that in social exchange, for the reason of inequalbrium of resources, some actors subordinate to other actors for profiting, therefore authority system appear. A quantity of actors and exchange activities occur in reality, these give rise to social regulation and trust. At the macro level, social structure is constituted by agents. Furthermore, they occupy a quantity of resources and prestige, so their activity impact society profoundly. Prestige and trust are significant for maintaining social order.Coleman's Rational Choice Theory involves all factors of a paradigm that is theoretical points, basic assumption, research methodology, theory structure. In fact all these factors constitute sociology interpretation of paradigm.